Max’s Declassified Nekroz Survival Guide

As promised from last week's article, I have decided to share the guide I have developed over the past 8 months of playing Nekroz. The original purpose for creating this guide was to simply write down all of the card's effects and teach myself how to play the deck for the Columbus Regional that I inevitably took 1st at back in February. After that regional, I had obviously learned a lot about the deck, and continued to write down my thoughts until I began to realize that I was formatting it into something more. As months passed I added more and more to the guide, and deleted things I eventually believed to be incorrect, after all nothing is perfect the first time around!

It then came to my attention, that this could be a great teaching tool for my close friends, which prompted me to share it with them too! Before YCS Columbus, my buddy Don Wilinski picked up Nekroz and I sent him the guide. He was not able to make the top cut, but he told me it taught him a lot about how to play the deck. Patrick wrote his own version of a Nekroz guide for Brandon Wigley leading up to the 25k in Philadelphia, but that guide didn't quite cover everything that was going on in the Konami format (It was meant for ARG format!).

Certain areas of this guide may seem rather remedial, and that's completely on purpose; I want to show the simplicities of the deck first, and then build into something more complex. Unless you've been out of the competitive scene for about a year, the area of the guide with all the monsters and ritual spells will probably be less relevant to you. Whereas someone who might not be familiar with this deck, would like to see a list of what every card does. I hope this can be of help to those who are just getting into playing the deck, and it can reinforce those who have been playing the deck for quite some time.

Nekroz Guide and Understanding

Simple Things:

You can’t use X monster as a tribute to summon the same X (Except Claus, Unicore)

Each Ritual spell has the graveyard effect of “if you control no monsters you can banish this card and a Nekroz monster to search your deck for any ritual spell”

Unicore, Brionac, Clausolas, and Catastor all rely on interacting with cards that were special summoned from the extra deck

Nekroz are weak to floodgates like Mistake, Vanity’s Emptiness, Imperial Iron Wall, Mistaken Arrest, Spell Canceller, Thunder King Raioh, Vanity’s Fiend, and Majesty’s Fiend (Obviously there are more but these are the most common).

When you ritual summon using the Ritual spells the monster’s level must exactly equal the tribute that goes into the summon.

The ritual spells do not send for cost.

You can only use one effect from Exa Enforcer of Nekroz and Great Sorcerer of the Nekroz per turn.

Not So Simple Things (KDE):

Never use effect Veiler (or any effect negation) on a “Ju” monster unless you have a second Veiler (or any effect negation). This is because you want to ensure you have a way to negate Nekroz of Trishula, Rhapsody in Berserk, or any other game breaking monster(s) if you have not played around it/them.

Using Unicore’s effect to add back the Ritual Mirror’s is important in the mirror match because you don’t want them to get Rhapsody’d away.

With Gungnir or Clausolas on field, say “attempt to leave main phase” to play around Veiler because if they try to Veiler, you can chain their effect(s) to destroy a card or negate something (and make its attack zero).

Anytime you can activate Maxx “C” and take a minimum of one card from its effect, you should because you need as many cards to combo with each time it is your turn (Maxx “C” is not a combo piece).

You don’t want to be stuck with a monster on a field and no way to advance your gamestate because you won’t be able to search for mirrors and you will be vulnerable to Nekroz of Trishula.

Minimizing the amount of traps in the main deck will allow you to maximize the amount of times you open optimal Ritual fields because trap cards are not combo pieces.

If your opponent has 2 or more set Spell/Trap cards, one of the easiest solutions is simply summoning a Gungnir to field because it is a guaranteed 2 for 2 on their backrow (Since your cards are all free, you can throw yours into your opponents and you will come out with more)

Never cut yourself off from a Mirror if you don’t have to because every Mirror is important and will come up at some point in a game (This is the same as not wanting to cut yourself off from a “Color” in Dragon Rulers)

Not So Simply Things (ARG):

With Gungnir or Clausolas on field, say, “attempt to leave main phase” to play around Veiler because if they try to Veiler, you can chain their effect(s) to destroy a card or negate something (and make its attack zero).

Anytime you can activate Maxx “C” and take a minimum of one card from its effect, you should because you need as many cards to combo with each time it is your turn (Maxx “C” is not a combo piece).

You don’t want to be stuck with a monster on a field and no way to advance your gamestate because you won’t be able to search for mirrors and you will be vulnerable to Puppet Plant.

Minimizing the amount of traps in the main deck will allow you to maximize the amount of times you open optimal Ritual fields because trap cards are not combo pieces.

If your opponent has 2 or more set Spell/Trap cards, one of the easiest solutions if simply summoning a Gungnir to field because it is a guaranteed 2 for 2 on their backrow (Since your cards are all free, you can throw yours into your opponents and you will come out with more)

The Nekroz Monsters and Ritual Spells:

Nekroz of Brionac:

Search for any Nekroz monster except himself from deck to hand.

Target 2 face-up monsters that came from the extra deck and shuffle them back into the extra deck. Staple 3 of.

Nekroz of Clausolas:

Search any Nekroz spell/trap card from deck to hand.

Same effect as Clausolas except it relies on extra deck monster

Nekroz of Decisive Armor:

Hand Trap

Discard to boost any Nekroz by 1000 ATK and DEF until end of turn.

Target 1 set card your opponent controls and then destroy and banish it.

Nekroz of Gungnir:

Hand Trap

During either player’s turn you can discard this card to protect one Nekroz monster from being destroyed by battle and card effects that turn.

During either player’s turn you can discard 1 Nekroz card to target 1 card on the field and destroy it.

Nekroz of Trishula:

Hand Trap

During either player’s turn when a Nekroz is targeted by a card effect you can discard this card to negate the activation (works in dmg step)

When summoned banish one card from opponent’s field, hand (random), and graveyard.

Nekroz of Unicore:

Discard to add any Nekroz card from graveyard to hand except himself.

Continuously negates the effects of all face-up monsters on the field from the extra deck

Nekroz of Valkyrus:

Hand Trap

When your opponent attacks you can banish 1 Nekroz card from your graveyard, then discard this card, to negate that attack and end the battle phase.

During main phase: tribute 1/2 monsters from your hand/field to draw 1 for each tributed.

Nekroz of Catastor:

You can discard this card to target one Nekroz monster in your graveyard and special summon it (Only Works on Shurit, Exa, Great Sorcerer, and Dance Princess).

At the start of the damage step, if a Nekroz monster you control battles an opponent’s monster that was special summoned from the extra deck, destroy that monster.

Shurit of Nekroz:

Can be used for the entire tribute of 1 Nekroz monster and only one.

If this card is tributed you can add 1 warrior-type Nekroz ritual monster from your deck to hand.

Dance Princess of Nekroz:

Your opponent can’t activate cards or effects in response to the activation of a Nekroz spell card.

Nekroz ritual monsters you control can’t be targeted by your opponent’s card effects

If tributed by a card effect you can add any of your Banished Nekroz monsters except Dance Princess to your hand.

Great Sorcerer of Nekroz:

If this card is tributed you can add one Nekroz Spellcaster monster from your deck to your hand

If this card is banished you can send one Nekroz card from your deck to the graveyard

You can only use one of Great Sorcerer’s effects per turn

Exa Enforcer of Nekroz:

If this card is tributed you can add one Nekroz Dragon monster from your deck to your hand.

If this card is banished you can special summon one Nekroz monster from your banished pile (only works on Shurit, Great Sorcerer, and Dance Princess)

You can only use one of Exa’s effects per turn

Nekroz Cycle:

Ritual summon a Nekroz from your hand or graveyard whose level exactly equals the total level of those monsters

If you control no monsters you can banish this card and 1 Nekroz monster to search any Nekroz spell.

Nekroz Kaleidoscope:

Can be used to ritual summon any number of Nekroz ritual monsters.

Tribute 1 monster from hand/field/extra deck to the graveyard, then ritual summon any number of Nekroz monsters whose levels equal the level of the monster sent for tribute.

If you control no monsters you can banish this card and 1 Nekroz monster to search any Nekroz spell.

Nekroz Mirror:

Tribute monsters from your hand/field or banish Nekroz monsters from your graveyard, then Ritual summon 1 Nekroz monster from your hand whose level equals the total levels of those monsters.

If you control no monsters you can banish this card and 1 Nekroz monster to search any Nekroz spell.

Match-Ups

Qliphort Match-Up

Go Second because you’re going to need as many cards as possible to combo against this deck. Drawing into your side deck cards is integral to winning this match-up.

Decisive Armor is an out to Towers if you use it on Valkyrus, Trishula, another Decisive Armor and Gungnir

Gungnir allows you to mitigate how often they have access to Scout

Trishula and Gungnir are the only searchable outs to Saqlifice monsters

Gungnir should be the turn one summon because of it’s ability to intercept Scout searches and mitigate flood gate activation(s).

Summoning Decisive Armor turn one (assuming you know you’re playing against Qliphort) allows you to play around Vanity’s Emptiness (KDE) and is 3300, which requires too much turn one commitment from the Qli player. Also serves as an out to Emptiness because if they set anything, then you can just destroy their S/T sets.

You should never be using your Spell/Trap Removal on Scout because the only cards that hinder your deck are the floodgates that Qliphort play. *The only exception to this rule is if you have a formidable amount of Spell/Trap Removal and you know that you’re in control*

The Performage monsters in combination with Mathematician allow you to summon Naturia Beast, which can automatically win you this match-up.

Evilswarm Exciton Knight will make this match-up extremely simply if you can resolve his effect because Qliphort commit so many cards to the field and eliminating their floodgates will allow you to overwhelm them (Use Valkyrus to protect Exciton from dying if your opponent has a Lose 1 Turn in play)

Damage is incredibly important in this match-up because the fewer times they can pay for Scout, the less likely they will be able to set up their plays (Pressing for Damage with the simple Kaleidoscope 12 drop, will put Qliphort at a minimum of 2800, which leaves them with only 3 Scout searches)

Burning Abyss Match-Up

Go Second because you want to increase your chances of seeing your side deck solutions to their backrow (Denko Sekka/MST/Royal Decree).

Brionac outs multiple Dante fields, but Brionac with Abyss Dweller is the biggest tempo swing in this matchup.

Trishula is a blow out because it can strip them of their free floating monsters. (KDE)

Djinn Releaser of Rituals is a blow out because it prevents them from advancing their gamestate. (BANNED)

Trishula can negate Fire Lake, PWWB, Raigeki Break, Farfa, and Karma cut, which are all cards that can give Nekroz problems. (KDE)

Burning Abyss will struggle to OTK because of Valkyrus, which forces them to make awkward fields with Mechquipped Angineer.

Using Gungnir to eliminate their backrows is important because if they use one of their traps on it, you can pick off another one with Gungnir’s effect

Abyss Dweller makes this match-up incredibly simple because it prevents them from floating with their Malebranches. This doesn’t mean you should just make Dweller and pass (you usually can do more!), rather it means Dweller should be summoned along side other monsters in order to deal with established Burning Abyss fields. (Using cards that shortcut to Dweller, like Performages and Instant Fusion, will make this match-up much less aggravating)

Satellarknight Match-Up

Go first if you can because while you want to increase your chances of drawing into side deck cards, you want to make sure you can actually use them. If Tellars set up with Alpha(s) and more backrow it’s going to be very difficult to come back.

Making Unicore prevents them from using their extra deck effectively, which forces them to play awkwardly. Instead of using Triverr to generate advantage, they have to use cards like Delteros to try swing over (if you don’t have Valkyrus/Gungnir) the Unicore (Unless they have a way to negate the Unicore).

Brionac can be used to break any board they establish because their strongest fields are composed of Xyz monsters.

Djinn Releaser of Rituals is a blow out because when Satellarknights can’t special summon they really can’t do anything productive. (BANNED)

Gungnir protects your Unicore from most of their outs in this match-up (cards like Fiendish Chain, and Breakthrough Skill will still work).

Making Unicore without a Gungnir, Trishula, or Valkyrus in hand is incorrect because it’s vulnerable to dying to Dark Hole, Raigeki, or by battle.

Set your Spells to play around a potential Anti-Spell Fragrance until you know that they do not use the card (it’s very rare you have 100% knowledge that they don’t use this card, which means you should always respect it).

Trishula can be used as a blow-out in this match-up because it can cut them off from their Deneb(s) and an in hand Altair, which will limit the effectiveness of their following turn(s).

Shaddoll-Match-Up

Go second because you want to increase your odds of seeing your side deck cards to break their established field (Things like Raigeki/Dark Hole/Denko Sekka).

Their Shaddoll fusion plays are hardly ever free because you win the game with Ritual monsters instead of extra deck monsters

Trishula is a blow out because it can cut them off from their fusion spells and eliminate their powerful fusion monsters. It’s important to avoid trying to Trishula them unless you have a good idea that they won’t be able to stop you from resolving its effect (Cards like El-Shaddoll Fusion and Breakthrough Skill things to consider before attempting to Trishula a Shaddoll player). (KDE)

Clausolas can keep the game in your control but it’s not something you should rush to summon because there is almost always something better to go into.

It’s important to hold cards like Raigeki and Dark Hole because they are your only proactive outs to the Water fusion (breakthrough skill is a solution too, but it’s not preferable because it’s a trap card).

Mirror Match

Go second because you want to maximize the amount of combo pieces you see in your opening hand. You also get to react to what your opponent might have done, which is where Nekroz excels.

You never want to leave any cards on the field at the end of your turn because you have to play around Trishula. This means every play should end with Valkyrus clearing your field. (KDE)

Djinn Releaser of Rituals is a blow out (BANNED)

Ask to side out Vanity’s Emptiness, because then you will be able to side out your MSTs (if main decked) and put in more applicable cards for the mirror match

(Alternate Route for Rule Number 3) If your opponent asks to side out Vanity’s Emptiness, you can say no (and side it out anyways), and force them to keep in their MSTs in their main deck, which will give them one less combo card per MST drawn.

(Alternate Route for Rule Number 3/4) If your opponent asks to side out Vanity’s Emptiness (or you do and your opponent agrees), you can side in cards like Necrovalley, Secret Village of The Spellcasters and any other floodgate because your opponent will have taken out their own MSTs.

Asking to side out the Djinn lock is optimal because it prevents you from losing to uncontrollable situations (unless you’ve built your deck around Djinn locking) (BANNED)

Don’t Use Trishula’s effect first unless you can win that turn because otherwise you run the risk of getting Trish’d back and losing your only Trishula (KDE). (Using Trishula’s effect first is only okay when you have a way to clear your field)

Whoever can resolve Trishula second almost always wins the game because that player no longer has to fear or play around their opponent’s Trishula because you should always eliminate Trishula from your opponent’s card pool if able (This means using Rhapsody on an “in grave” Trishula is optimal as well) (KDE)

Doing as much damage until your opponent goes below 5200 is integral to OTKing with Gungnir because Gungnir allows you to push through Valkyrus and win the game.

Use Effect Veiler to bait your opponent into Trishulaing you by leaving cards on the field. When they try to Trishula you, respond with the Effect Veiler and win the game with a Trishula of your own on the next turn. (KDE).

Never take any damage over 1000 if you don’t have to because then that will open you up to getting OTK’d by a field with Gungnir/Masquerade.

Ending your turn with a Spellcaster or Warrior monster (Unicore, Valkyrus, Brionac, Gungnir and Clausolas) is incredibly dangerous because if a Puppet Plant resolves you will almost always lose the game (ARG)

Never make a play if you don’t have to because the Mirror match is all about having more resources than your opponent, wasting cards is a sure fire way to lose the mirror match (Don’t be wasteful with Unicores!).

It’s very risky to try a Nekroz of Trishula play in games 2/3, because if your opponent has left themselves vulnerable, they surely will have something that will punish you for Trishulaing them (Mirror of the Ice Barrier is the best example of this). (KDE)

If you have Book of Moon, then you should hold it until you are ready to make a game push. Book of Moon is similar to Gungnir in that it allows you to push through a Valkyrus and end the game without any interference from your opponent (Damage Juggler can create exceptions to this rule, but most of the time Book of Moon is a great way to win the game through Valkyrus).

If your opponent did not search Valkyrus, there’s a high chance that they actually don’t have it (This is not an absolute statement, but it has been proven time and time again).

Always play around Torrential Tribute and Mirror Force because while they main seem unorthodox, they have seen play in many Nekroz decks and will usually win the game if they resolve at the right time.

The Performage monsters allow you to OTK your opponent with Masquerade because they provide free rank 4 fodder.

Mathematician (Math) can serve as another Manju/Senju because he allows you to go through your deck and set up plays. Math be used in combination with Glow-Up Bulb to summon Herald of Arc Light, which is extremely powerful in the mirror match.

Elder Entity Norden can be used to rush into Masquerade to OTK through Valkyrus. If you use Mathematician to create Herald of Arc Light, you can use Norden to bring back the properly summoned Herald of Arc Light, which will create more free cards for you once it’s sent to the graveyard again.

Herald of Arc Light can be used to attack through Valkyrus, which gives more merit to using Mathematician.

Using Rhapsody to cut off your opponent from their in-grave ritual spells/Nekroz monsters (like Unicore(s), Shurit, and Valkyrus(s), is very integral because of how important resources are in the mirror match.

Cards That Give Nekroz Issues (Cards to Consider when Side Decking)

Mind Crush: lets your opponent intercept your ritual plays, and take cards out of your hand because you search your deck at such a rapid rate.

Shared Ride: Essentially a Maxx “C” because it prevents you from searching too many times without getting punished.

Vanity’s Emptiness: Prevents you from summoning any of your Ritual monsters and essentially prevents you from playing the game. (KDE)

Mistake: Prevents you from searching your deck, which means you won’t be able to play optimally.

Thunder King Raioh: Prevents you from searching your deck, which means you won’t be able to play comfortably. You need to already be able to ritual summon to out this card (Have all your combo pieces).

Vanity’s Fiend: Prevents you from summoning any of your Ritual monsters and essentially prevents you from playing the game.

Skill Drain: Prevents you from using your on field monster effects, and makes the Qliphort match-up unbearable.

Saqlifice: You have to resolve a Trishula to effectively out this card (Gungnir is another out, but it doesn’t prevent the Saqlifice from resolving).

Masked Hero Dark Law: You get punished for playing your deck. This card depletes your advantage and needs to be taken care off as fast as possible with a Brionac, Unicore, or Clausolas.

Mind Drain: Prevents you from searching with in hand effects and prevents puppet plant.

Majesty’s Fiend: You can’t activate any of your search effects, requires you to already have your combo pieces and even if you manage to summon something to get over the Majesty’s Fiend you lose too much advantage doing so because you won’t be able to search off an Arc Light or a Shurit.

Artifact Lancea: Cant mirror search or use Trishula. Also unable to summon off of Nekroz Mirror, or attempt to Djinn lock in a conventional manner.

Anti-Spell Fragrance: can lock you out of ritual summoning if combo’d with Triverr.

Forbidden Lance: Protects your opponent’s Djinn lock (BANNED)

Solemn Scolding: Protects your opponent’s Djinn lock (BANNED)

Lose One Turn: Prevents you from using your monster effects and advancing your gamestate

Spell Canceller: Prevents you from summoning any of your Ritual monsters.

Necrovalley: you are unable to search your deck for free mirrors out of your graveyard, you cannot use Valkyrus to prevent OTKs and you cannot use Nekroz of Trishula (KDE).

Mistaken Arrest: Prevents you from searching your deck, which means you won’t be able to play optimally.

Masquerade: kills you through Valkyrus and damage Juggler, there’s virtually no solution (Unless you use Effect Negation).

Retaliating “C”: Anytime a ritual spell is used, this card will eliminate any of the materials that went into the summon, which is a huge issue for Nekroz (Losing Shurit is a major because there’s only one. Not getting a free card off of Herald of Arc Light is also huge).

Twister: Strong against Qliphort and Satellarknights and allows you to out floodgates

Fairy Wind: Strong Against Qliphort and Satellarknights and allows you to out floodgates

Shared Ride: Strong against the mirror match

Burial From a Different Dimension: Okay against the mirror match because it can allow you to out resource your opponent

De-Fusion: Outs Dark-Law, and the water fusion

Soul Release: Decent against the mirror match because it can cut them off from almost everything and usually opens them up to an OTK because they won’t have a Nekroz card in grave to use an in hand Valkyrus.

Ally of Justice Cycle Reader: Strong against Satellarknights

Royal Decree: Outs almost every floodgate and lets your play freely. Is not bad to draw into already active floodgates whereas Denko Sekka cannot solve already activate floodgates

Kycoo The Ghost Destroyer: Allows you to otk through a Valkyrus in the mirror match along with preventing your opponent from accumulating free advantage off of their mirrors.

Effect Veiler: lets you over extend without fear of getting Trishula’d (KDE). Allows you to bait your opponent into Trishulaing you

Malevolent Catastrophe: outs all the floods and is most effective against Qliphort and Satellarknights

Djinn Releaser: 2nd Copy in the side allows you to blow them out if they agree to side main decked ones out (BANNED)

Mischief of the Gnomes: blow out in the mirror (If they don’t have Shurit) and against Burning Abyss

Mind Crush: Good vs. Qli/Mirror/Satellarknights

Spell Canceller: Siding this for the mirror match can be an autowin

Prohibition: Use this to call Valkyrus and OTK (You won’t be able to use your own Valkyrus and OTK because Prohibition won’t let you use it)

Psi-Blocker: Use this to out any active floodgate or you can call Valkyrus in the mirror and go for game (You won’t be able to use your own Valkyrus and OTK because Psi Blocker won’t let you use it)

Side Decking

Simplicity is key when side decking because the less you have to alter your main deck the more consistent your deck will remain for the final stages of the match

Avoid siding out any of the Nekroz engine cards because you want to make sure your deck still operates properly with the side deck cards included (Brionac/Clausolas/Unicore/Valkyrus).

Siding Gungnir/Decisive Armor in/out depends on what your match-up is

If you are siding in more normal summons it’s okay to take out at least one Senju because you want to avoid hands with various normal summons (However if you’re going first keep all your Manjus/Senjus in!).

Psychological Game:

Figuring out if they keep Vanity’s Emptiness in (KDE): Ask your opponent if they want to keep Vanity’s Emptiness out. This question can spur various responses, all of which will give you an idea of what to do.

If they say no: They do not play the card or they don’t want to side the card out because they feel comfortable with it in their deck. If this is the case it’s safe to put in one or two copies of MST to prevent yourself from getting blown out.

If they say yes: As long as they reveal their Vanity’s Emptiness you can safely avoid playing suboptimal cards like MST in the mirror match. This also opens a window for you to side in cards like Deck Lockdown/Necrovalley/Mistake because you know they will have taken out their MSTs.

If they don’t answer your question: This response should trigger a similar reaction to the first possible response, which means you should probably use one or two MSTs just in case they do put Vanity’s Emptiness in.

Preventing Yourself From Getting Trishula’d despite not having Effect negation: If you just leave cards on the field your opponent will assume you have effect negation (or a way to play around Trishula) and then they probably won’t Trishula you. The risks/rewards of them trying to Trishula you with a potential out are far too astronomical.

Activate Nekroz Cycle and chain Decisive Armor’s effect, targeting Unicore, use the Cycle (tributing Shurit) to special summon the in grave Decisive Armor (Current Field should be Manju/Senju, Unicore at 3300, and Decisive Armor)

Attack with everything for 8000

Amateratsu Play That Deals 8200

Requires: Hand: Manju/Senju, Aqua Spirit, Nekroz Mirror.

Graveyard: Great Sorcerer, Any Nekroz Mirror, Any Nekroz monster

Steps:

Banish whatever Nekroz mirror you have in the graveyard to search for Kaleidomirror (or Nekroz mirror, whichever one that you don’t have)

Normal summon Manju/Senju and search for Nekroz of Unicore

Activate Kaleidomirror sending Herald of Arc Light to special summon Nekroz of Unicore

Use Herald of Arc Light’s effect to search your deck for Nekroz of Valkyrus

Banish Great Sorcerer of Nekroz with Aqua Spirit’s effect to summon itself, and then use Great Sorcerer’s effect to send Shurit to the graveyard

Activate Nekroz Mirror, banishing the in grave Shurit to Special summon Nekroz of Valkyrus (At this point you can deal 8200 with the Aqua Spirit, Manju/Senju, Nekroz of Unicore, and the Valkyrus.

Use Amaterasu’s effect to special summon the banished Shurit to the field and then use Nekroz of Valkyrus to tribute the Shurit to draw card, then use Shurit’s effect to search your deck for a Nekroz of Brionac

Use Nekroz of Brionac’s effect to search for Nekroz of Valkyrus (assuming you didn’t already draw it).

At this point you can pass your turn and immediately on your opponent’s you can trigger Amaterasu’s effect to add back the banished Great Sorcerer to your hand.

I wish the very best of luck to all those attending ARGCS Atlantic City and any regional competitions this weekend. Until next time, Play Hard or Go Home!